You Have Goals, Do You Have a Plan?

I love setting goals.

They give you something to compete for. Hopefully you have set goals for your business. What the outcomes you want to achieve in 2018 with your revenue, market share, profitability, new customers, new products or product lines, acquisitions, etc.? I have set my goals, as well. Good job, and well done!

That’s not enough though.

If the goals aren’t translated into a plan, you dramatically reduce your chances of achieving your goals. As many have said in many different ways, “You need to know where you are going to be in the future (goals), and you need to know what you are going to do about it right now (actions/plan).”

This need not mean starting from scratch and creating a whole new strategic plan. At the very least though, you need to update what you have in order to reflect the current circumstances. Here are some basics to keep in mind as you update, plan, or create a new one.

Take stock of the following:

Talent – Do you have the right people in the right seats doing the right things the right way?

Strategy – Is what has been working still working as well as it did in the past? What is changing, your customer base, technology, competition? Is your strategy focused on your customers, and is everyone aligned around the same strategy?

Execution – Is the team working together well? Are they working on both new initiatives (ROCKS) and existing tactics (SAND)? Are the leading indicators where they need to be, and if not, are adjustments being made to make sure you hit your goals?

Cash – Got enough cash to cover what needs to be done to produce results?

You also want to ask yourself if everyone is involved in creating the plan, and is everyone aware of what the plan is? When people are actively involved in creating the plan, they are much more committed to making it happen.

Set your goals. Create your plan. Plan your work, and then work the plan.